John Mackey (businessman)

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John Mackey is the CEO and founder of Whole Foods Market.

Mackey says that he is a "free market libertarian." (Reason magazine, October 2005).

"John Mackey Co-Founder Board Member. John Mackey is Chairman and CEO of Whole Foods Market, a $3.8 billion Fortune 500 company, and a "Fortune 100 Best Companies To Work For" every year since 1998. Whole Foods is one of the top 12 supermarket companies in America and the world's largest natural foods retail chain. John Mackey was named the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur Of The Year in 2003. Mr. Mackey is a strong believer in FLOW principles, including free market principles and empowerment management. Mr. Mackey has lived on a vegetarian co-op. He and his wife, Deborah, both practice meditation and yoga, and spend as much time as they can on their 720 acre ranch west of Austin. John is a voracious book reader and participates in two monthly book clubs. He is always up for a lively debate about politics, economics, history, or sports." (Taken from the FLOW website, www.flowidealism.org.)

As a CEO, John has been criticized in Leftist and union publications for advocating an anti-union business philosophy. He has elaborated on his Milton Friedman-inspired anti-union views in his pamphlet, "Beyond Unions," and in such statements as: "The union is like having herpes. It doesn't kill you, but it's unpleasant and inconvenient, and it stops a lot of people from becoming your lover." (http://www.ibiblio.org/prism/may98/wellspring.html).

Mackey explains his perspective on unions: "Unions as they evolved in the United States became very adversarial, untrusting, and opposed to the success and prosperity of the business. This is my major objection to unions today -- they harm the flourishing of the business for all the stakeholders. Instead of cooperation between stakeholders, they focus on competition between management and labor. Instead of embracing the notion of the "expanding pie" vision of capitalism -- more for everyone, or win-win -- they frequently embrace the zero-sum philosophy of win-lose." (http://www.wholefoods.com/blogs/jm/archives/2005/10/20_questions_wi.html). Whole Foods Market is one of only two Fortune 500 companies listed among the 25 Best Companies to work for in 2005, a fact which he ascribes to his pro-employee philosophy. He supports non-adversarial unions and advocates their legalization in the U.S.: "It's illegal in the United States for there to be company unions -- special unions which are formed and controlled by the employees and managers of the company to represent their interests and collectively bargain on their behalf. These type of unions are legal in many countries such as Japan, but are illegal in the United States. Instead the law requires that all unions be outside unions. I believe this law should be repealed and that company unions should be as legal as any other kind of voluntary association."